


keep following the heartlines on your hands

by invoked_duplicity



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Bad Matchmaking, Dancing Lessons, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mollymauk is super obnoxious, Multi, Mutual Pining, Near Death Experiences, Nott and Molly are partners in crime, Polyamory, Prompt Fic, Slow Burn, Spoilers up to Ep14, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Very Bad sword polishing innuendo, autistic caleb, this is very self-indulgent and i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 03:50:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14417064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invoked_duplicity/pseuds/invoked_duplicity
Summary: Five times Molly tries to set up Fjord and Caleb with each other and one time Molly gets set up with them.





	keep following the heartlines on your hands

**Author's Note:**

> So, this happened. It's a prompt fill (or multiple prompt fills, because many people asked for this OT3) from tumblr and I had a lot of fun writing it! If you want to leave a prompt you can come into my askbox on tumblr at invoked-duplicity :) 
> 
> There are some Zemnian things said, they're translated in the notes at the end! Have fun reading <3

### I.

Molly can admit when he finds people attractive. Of course there are some people who make it easier to admit that than others. For example, if he ever felt any attraction towards Beau, Molly could never forgive himself. 

But, as fortune has it, Molly is thankfully not even the tiniest bit attracted to Beau. No, Molly’s attraction is currently somewhat divided and while that usually wouldn’t bother him, the fact that the recipients of that special kind of attention are both part of a group does bother him tremendously. 

His group. His new family. Which complicates things. 

Molly sees how Yasha and Beau do that awkward kind of dance around each other where they’re clearly into one another but no one wants to admit it outright. While Molly has been laughing about that for weeks on end, he now finds himself facing a similar problem, multiplied by two. 

Which probably holds a lesson for him somewhere, but Molly doesn’t care enough about it to consider it further. 

Molly is the master of suppressing feelings and denying important stuff until it bites him right into his arse. But it seems that he hasn’t quite mastered this particular kind of denial because he finds his eyes drawn to his two problems frequently with the result of his insides aching, his heart fluttering and his mind wandering to places it really should not wander to. 

The two problems Molly has are Caleb and Fjord. And, if he thinks about it more closely, he might even have a third problem, which is: Caleb and Fjord together. 

Not like they’re actually together, no. They’re way too awkward for that to work itself out. Molly would probably have to push for this to work. But his head might explode from the actual, physical display of affection between those two dumbasses. 

Molly knows that neither of them would be opposed to–well, a thing. Whatever that thing might be. A relationship? Sex? They’re so obviously attracted to each other that Molly sometimes wants to bang his head against a wall. Molly watched Caleb and Fjord for quite some time now, but for a few weeks it’s been so painfully obvious that even Nott and Beau have noticed and it’s not like they’re the most perceptive when it comes to interpersonal fuckery. 

“I think maybe Caleb likes Fjord”, Nott had whispered to Jester the night before and Jester had giggled for a solid two minutes before taking a sip of her milk and answering:

“I think Fjord likes Caleb, too.”

Nott’s huge eyes had turned even bigger and then the two of them started to plot a romance novel that was eerily similar to Tusk Love and in which Caleb and Fjord played the starring roles. Molly had tuned out at this point, letting his mind wander to a time where he could just flirt the pants off some cute carnival spectator without having to worry about fucking up the family dynamics. 

Molly can’t even recall when he started to look at those two differently. It’s not like he didn’t know from day one that Fjord was a pretty face and after he saw Caleb all bathed and cleaned up… well. 

Physical attraction is one thing. A thing Molly can handle by bending the son of a tavern owner over a table after the tavern already closed down and making him gasp and whimper. 

Romantic attraction is something else entirely and Molly doesn’t like it one bit. All those _feelings_ are just a big, rude inconvenience and he has no desire to complicate his life in any way. Or the lives of the group. Well, maybe Beau’s life, but Molly can’t figure out a way in which his romantic attraction to Fjord and Caleb could inconvenience her specifically, so it’s out of the question. 

Right now he watches Caleb reading in one of his books. His tongue is stuck between his lips, Frumpkin purrs in his lap and every few seconds Caleb’s lips move as if he says the words out loud to memorize them better. And Molly is not the only one watching Caleb. Fjord had said that he wanted to polish his sword – followed with lots of giggling and rude laughing by Jester and Beau – and he does sit on a tree stump with his blade in hand. 

But his eyes are definitely resting on Caleb. 

Molly decides that he can’t just watch this anymore. It might as well be that his own desires start fading as soon as both of them become unavailable. Because people who are happily taken are definitely not on Molly’s radar. 

He saunters over to Fjord and sits down on the ground beside him with crossed legs, noting how the yellow eyes flicker over to Molly now. Molly grins as he sees the dark green blush that creeps up on Fjord’s cheeks. Being found out is never pleasant, Molly knows. But he is sadistic enough to revel in Fjord’s apparent nervousness. 

“How is all this sword polishing coming along?”, Molly asks innocently and grins up at Fjord who turns an even darker shade of green. He coughs a bit and runs his fingers through his hair. Molly would love to see how that carefully groomed hair looks all messed up after some thorough pulling and grabbing. 

His mind is the worst. 

“Quite alright”, Fjord answers, his voice smooth as always, though he is still blushing. 

“Did you let Caleb study that sword of yours?”, Molly asks, his grin turning wider still while Fjord’s expressions flickers for a second. But even though Molly is a master at reading people and sometimes also a master in manipulating the fuck out of them, Fjord’s walls cannot be that easily penetrated and Molly is impressed. 

That doesn’t stop him from pushing, though. 

“Not yet”, Fjord says carefully and Molly has to stop himself from laughing out loud. Not yet, indeed. 

“Well, you know. I think he would really appreciate it if you let him”, Molly says slyly and winks. Fjord stares at Molly and there is that lovely shade of green again. Damn, Molly thinks, Fjord must be really thirsty for their socially awkward wizard. It’s not that Molly can’t relate, to be fair. He watched Caleb reading and studying at the same time Fjord did, but at least Molly didn’t pretend to be polishing a stupid sword. 

“Maybe he can even help you with the polishing, you know. Might be safer, with some magically talented hands”, Molly continues, stretching his legs and cocking his head to the side. Fjord stares at Molly, as if he’s not sure that he heard him correctly, but unfortunately Molly can’t keep pushing, since Jester wanders over and puts some flowers in Molly's hair. 

Molly sees the way Fjord’s eyes flicker over to Caleb and Molly follows his gaze, finding Caleb’s blue eyes trained on the both of them with a very small smile on his face.

### II.

Molly finds an unexpected ally in Nott, who – after her initial distrust of Fjord – forgave both Fjord and Molly since both of them saved Caleb’s life repeatedly during the last months. She is still set on making Caleb thrive and happy. 

“If Fjord likes Caleb and Caleb likes Fjord”, she says one evening while sitting next to Molly by a fire they got going an hour ago, “Why aren’t they doing… you know… stuff?”

Molly snorts und lets his head fall back into his neck to look up at the clear night sky. The stars are bright and astonishingly visible out here in the field and Molly marvels at the beauty of this fucked up world for a second before he answers Nott. 

“Well, they’re both pretty stupid and have no idea the other one likes them back”, he says. Nott pokes the fire with a long stick she found earlier. 

“But Caleb is so smart”, Nott says defensively, “he knows so many things. It doesn’t make any sense that he can’t _see_.”

Molly looks at the small figure beside him. He wonders if Nott cares for romance in any way. She mostly seems interested in shiny things, protecting Caleb and drinking booze – all things Molly can definitely appreciate. 

“We’re all friends, so it’s difficult to be open about that kind of thing. What if it doesn’t work? Then it might make things with the group awkward. And I think they both really want this to work”, Molly explains. To be honest, this is mostly his own reasoning speaking, he has no idea if this is indeed the reason why Caleb and Fjord won’t just smooch the hell out of each other. 

Damn, that would be a sight to behold. 

Molly clears his throat because his thoughts wandered again. 

“But do you think we should do something about it? Do you think it would work?”, Nott wants to know. Molly shrugs. 

“I think they both like each other. They fit. But who am I to know if that might work in the long run or not”, Molly says. And it’s the truth. Nott makes a small noise and Molly watches her big, yellow eyes glide over to Fjord and Caleb. Caleb sleeps on his side, curled in on himself under his bedroll, his mouth slightly open while Fjord lies sprawled out on his back, snoring faintly. 

“Do you think I should help?”, Nott asks hesitantly. 

Molly grins widely. 

“Oh, I think that would be just marvelous, dear”, he answers truthfully. Nott throws him a glance as if she tries to find out whether or not Molly is making fun of her. Whatever she finds in his grinning face seems to convince her however, because she gets up, puts her stick down and starts creeping over to where Caleb and Fjord are sleeping in close proximity. 

Fjord’s hand lies outstretched on the ground beside him, his fingers loosely curled, while Caleb’s hands are close to his face and chest. Nott sneaks over and melts into the shadows. Molly has trouble to make out her small frame against the dark forest behind her, but then he notices her small clawed hands carefully touching Caleb’s fingers, pulling them out from under his coat. 

Caleb makes a soft sound in his sleep and Nott stops, but Caleb doesn’t wake up and finally Nott pulls Caleb’s hand so his arm lies slightly outstretched on the ground. Molly cannot help but smile when Nott lays Caleb’s fingers down into Fjord’s open palm. 

Nott looks at her small masterpiece, then she creeps back over to where Molly sits and bites his bottom lip full of amusement. 

“I’d say it’s time for the second watch”, Molly says with a wide grin. He ignores the aching in his chest and the fluttering in his stomach when he glances at the two hands now holding each other peacefully in the dirt. Nott grins and shows all of her jagged teeth. It’s a smile Molly came to like quite a bit. 

“Yes!”

Molly gets up and saunters over to where Fjord and Caleb lie – then he bends down, stretches out both of his arms and shakes them simultaneously. 

Fjord’s eyes flutter open slowly while Caleb is wide awake immediately, always on alert, even after all this time. Molly thinks he and Nott were very lucky to not have woken him with Nott’s little maneuver. It takes them both only a few blinks to realize where their hands are. 

Caleb sits up hastily, his face beet red, and pulls his hand to his chest as if he’s been burned. Fjord turns his head and stares at his fingers. He looks sleepy and Molly wonders whether or not Fjord might think that he only dreamed this. 

“Well, you two lovebirds, it’s time for second watch”, Molly says, stands up straight again and grins down to the both of them. Caleb and Fjord look up to him and Molly gives them one of his winks before he walks over to his bedroll. Nott sits by the fire and pokes at it again, a gleam of mischief and happiness in her big eyes. 

“Good work”, Molly whispers and crawls under his bedroll. 

Nott grins in his direction, puts her stick close to her own bedroll and lies down. This could be an amazing team-up, Molly decides as he closes his eyes and sighs contently.

### III.

Molly thinks some inspiration for all the possibilities another warm body holds might be the best thing to push Caleb and Fjord into each other’s arms. He likes to flirt and he likes sex so it’s not a big deal to find a pretty guy in the next small town they stay in to help with a plague of undead that has the citizens on their toes. 

The guy’s name is Aldrin. He’s a human with big brown eyes, long lashes and a cute gap between his front teeth and when he looks at Molly he seems to be equally smitten and frightened which is a nice look, Molly finds. 

It also helps that he saved Aldrin’s life when three skeletons attacked him the night before in the middle of the street. Now Molly shares a table with him, his cards spread out between them while Aldrin’s eyes flicker from the cards to Molly’s lips and back. 

It’s adorable. 

The guy must be at least Molly’s age – as far as Molly even knows how old he is – but he blushes like a virgin when Molly grins at him. It kind of reminds him of Caleb a bit. Though Caleb probably isn’t a virgin anymore. 

Somewhere in there is a joke about virginal sacrifices and blood magic but Molly is too distracted to think about it more. 

“Oh, this is good. The Tower”, Molly says dramatically, lowers his voice to a deep, husky whisper and pushes the card over to Aldrin. He can feel several pairs of eyes on him and doesn’t give in to temptation to look around. “It’s a symbol for breaking free from societal norms and expectations. Freedom. Letting go.”

Molly winks. 

Aldrin looks as if he’s ready to fall from his chair or come in his pants. Molly would appreciate either one, if he’s honest with himself. 

He knows his cards and doesn’t even have to look to pull out the one he’ll use to finish Aldrin off. His cheeks are red and his lips are slightly parted and Molly thinks that he might as well have been giving the guy a blowjob this whole time considering how flustered and blissed out he seems. Molly appreciates people who get very excited in bed. 

And his room doesn’t only share a wall with Caleb’s room, no. Molly still shares his room with Fjord. So maybe Fjord will flee to Caleb’s room for refuge when he finds out that Molly occupies their room with Aldrin. Who also seems the type for loud noises during sex. 

Perfect. 

He presents the last card to Aldrin. And because this is Molly’s personal tarot deck, The Lovers are not represented by a woman and a man, but by two men embracing each other intimately. Aldrin sucks in a breath and Molly chuckles. 

“Look at that. The Lovers”, he says smoothly. Molly decides to let Aldrin cook in his unspoken desires for a few seconds without telling him what exactly that card might mean and turns around after all to see if someone is watching the two of them. 

And indeed, Yasha has her feet up on a table nearby, sipping some ale she probably didn’t pay for and shaking her head at Molly while rolling her eyes. Molly sticks his tongue out in her direction and finally finds Fjord and Caleb, sitting side by side at the bar, seemingly dumbstruck by Molly’s shenanigans. 

Molly wonders if he should warn Nott about his plans because it’s not only Caleb’s room but hers as well. Nott is old enough to handle this, though, Molly thinks when he stands and holds his hand out for Aldrin to take. And Nott is out and about with Beau and Jester so it’s not like Molly can wait for her to come back. Aldrin might’ve fainted from anticipation by then and Molly can’t have that. 

Not until the end of the night, at least. 

Aldrin almost scrambles up from his seat and takes Molly’s hand and Molly leads him towards the stairs that lead up to their rooms. 

When he passes Fjord and Caleb he turns to Aldrin and says: “I hope you don’t have anything else to do tonight.”

Molly could swear that Fjord tries to stop him but Molly doesn’t break his stride towards the stairs and Aldrin shakes his head frantically. 

Molly is an entertainer at heart and Aldrin seems desperately in need for some entertainment. So Molly indulges him with a lot of teasing, words whispered in Infernal and slowly stripping off his clothes while never taking his red eyes off of Aldrins face. His ears are half-heartedly focused on any sound coming from the hallway while he goes down on his knees in front of the bed and draws some pretty and very inspirational sounds from Aldrin’s lips. 

If that doesn’t get Caleb and Fjord going, Molly can’t help them.

Aldrin, the poor sod, probably needs his mind taken off of the trouble his small town faces and Molly did mean it when he said that he left every town better than he found it. He will leave Aldrin with a sense of adventure, self confidence and new-found piece of identity. And Molly gets one or two orgasms out of it as well. 

Not to mention the probable reaction he might get from Caleb and Fjord. The sooner those two get together and become unavailable for Molly, the sooner Molly can start to get over his inconvenient feelings for them. 

Molly thinks about the way either of their voices would sound if they were the ones spread out beneath him on the bed right now, panting and whimpering and maybe even begging. Oh, Molly hopes they’re listening. And a part of him – the self indulgent part, the one that selfishly _wants_ – wishes that they’ll wonder about everything they could be missing out on if they don’t include Molly in their interpersonal adventures. 

When Molly gets up in the morning Aldrin is still asleep and Molly doesn’t bother to wake him. He counts all the marks his teeth left and smiles before putting on his coat and leaving for breakfast. 

As soon as he enters Jester starts to giggle and Beau looks at him as if she’s been scarred for life. 

“Why?”, she asks bluntly. Molly looks at her innocently. 

“What are you talking about?”, he answers. Beau flips him off and groans as if she’s still trying to get the sounds out of her head. 

“Did you have fun?”, Jester wants to know with a mischievous grin and offers Molly a chair next to her. Molly sits down and sighs happily. 

“Oh, I did. So much fun”, he says. 

Molly pretends that he doesn’t see Caleb bury his face in his hands or Fjord’s deep green cheeks and the forceful concentration on his plate full of bacon and eggs. 

Nott gives Molly a questioning look over her own plate and he answers it with two thumps up. Yasha looks at him as if she questions his sanity but Molly never cared for sanity before so he sure as hell won’t start caring now.

### IV.

Molly is in deep trouble. 

He is bleeding a lot. Bleeding in itself is nothing new to him anymore, but he is bleeding from a deep wound in his side. A wound Molly didn’t cause himself. 

This one was caused by a large sword that cut into him because he – fool, Mollymauk, you fool – put himself between Nott and the bandit wielding the blade. 

“Molly!”, he hears her shrill screeching, though it’s a bit as if she’s speaking through very thick cotton. Molly grabs his swords tighter and forces himself to stay upright, still standing between Nott and the bandit. 

“ _You will not touch her_ ”, he hisses in Infernal, but his knees are giving out and by now it’s just a matter of seconds before the dizziness in his head will overwhelm him. The bandit just laughs in his face. Oh, Molly wants to cut his head right off.

“Jester! Yasha! Help!”, Nott screams as Molly goes to his knees. This is not the good kind of pain. He makes a gurgling sound and lets go of one of the swords to clutch at his wound. Yes, Yasha can help, he thinks hazily. Yasha is big and strong and… the figure that steps in front of him is not big and definitely not strong at all. 

“Fass ihn nicht an.”

Caleb’s voice sounds surprisingly cold in Molly’s ears and he wants to scream at Caleb to not be stupid and hide. And get back. And not risk his life for Molly. 

He feels cold but all of a sudden a wave of heat hits him and while he blinks he realizes that Caleb set the man on fire. And then, without even looking at the bandit anymore, Caleb turns around and kneels down beside Molly. 

“Mollymauk”, he says quietly. Molly manages a smile. 

“S’just a flesh wound”, he slurs. 

“Jester! Jester help!”, Nott screeches again. And it’s touching, really, after the rocky start the two of them had. Molly is glad that she’s alright. 

“Hey, Mollymauk. Can you keep your eyes open for me? Please?”

Panic creeps into Caleb’s voice. Molly really wants to soothe him, but he has a hard time talking or even breathing properly. Caleb starts rambling in Zemnian. 

“Scheiße, scheiße, scheiße. Komm schon…”

Jester’s blue, concerned face appears in Molly’s field of view and she puts her hands on his wound immediately. Damn, it hurts. 

“Oh no, Molly. Don’t you worry, I will heal you. You’ll be as good as new, ok?”

Molly can still hear some fighting and he can only assume that it’s Yasha and Fjord finishing the last of the bandits off that ambushed them in the middle of the night. It’s Molly’s fault, really. It was his watch and he didn’t hear them coming because he was too busy staring at Fjord’s and Caleb’s sleeping faces and listening to the sound of his own fluttering heart. 

Curse them both. 

“I’m going to faint now”, he informs Jester before everything fades to black. 

Molly always remembers his dreams and they’re usually not very pleasant. This time rivers of blood come crashing through a town they’re all staying in and while he tries to stay afloat on a piece of drifting wood, he can see the others being torn away away, Nott’s small form vanishing under red waves, Yasha trying to grab a nearby window frame to hold onto, but she also gets pulled under. Toya stands on one of the rooftops and sings her heart out while Molly drifts helplessly, endlessly, watching his friends drown in blood–

He gasps and shudders awake, sitting upright and immediately cursing under his breath because sharp pain shoots through his upper body. 

“Hey, hey. Lie down”, a familiar, smooth voice says and presses down gently on Molly’s shoulders. He becomes aware of a cat purring nearby, a tiny goblin curled on the bed close to his feet and Jester’s head on the half of his pillow Molly wasn’t occupying. 

The cat looks up when Molly turns around and something tells Molly that these eyes are too intelligent, even for a cat. 

Yasha sleeps in an armchair in a corner of the room, Beau is sprawled out on the floor beside Molly’s bed. They’re all here, Molly thinks through a haze of pain and disorientation. 

“Lie down”, Fjord repeats and Molly follows the order slowly. Fjord watches him closely and Molly tries one of his lopsided, playful grins. 

“Where’s Caleb?”, Molly asks. 

“He’s off doin’ some shopping. Said he needed to clear his head”, Fjord answers quietly. Nott makes a tiny sound at the end of his bed and Molly can’t stop himself from smiling fondly. Even Beau is in this tiny room and sleeps on the floor beside his bed. That asshole. He’s going to tease the hell out of her later. 

“I think Yasha is kinda tired of carryin’ our wounded bodies around”, Fjord says. Molly snorts and flinches immediately afterwards. 

“I cannot imagine why. Must be hella fun”, Molly croaks and now it’s Fjord’s turn to snort. 

“Well… you know. Caleb and I tried to pick you up. But we’re way too weak to carry someone this far”, Fjord explains and Molly blinks up at him. 

“Well, that was stupid of you”, he says. Fjord rolls his eyes at him. 

“Yeah well, sometimes you have to get a bit stupid”, he answers and looks at Molly with a strange gleam in his yellow eyes. Molly likes Fjord’s eyes. He especially likes those slit pupils. Molly himself doesn’t have any, but if he could choose a pair to go with the rest of him he’d definitely choose pupils exactly like this. 

Molly looks over at Frumpkin. The cat stares back at him intensely. Molly wonders if Caleb just sat down somewhere in a dark corner to spy on him but it might as well be Molly’s imagination. Still, it’s an opportunity and Molly is nothing if not an opportunist, even if his body aches from pain and his head feels dizzy and clouded. 

“You mean stupid like with, say, relationship stuff?”, he asks innocently. Fjord’s expression shifts for a second, then it slides back into place and he clears his throat. 

“Depends”, Fjord states. 

“Hm”, Molly hums and starts to pat Frumpkin absentmindedly. 

“Maybe you should consider being stupid. I think it could be all kinds of fun”, Molly says with a wide grin. Fjord blinks down at him and then starts to blush again. Ah, this might be Molly’s favorite shade of green. 

Frumkpin climbs onto Molly’s chest and curls into a ball there. Molly wonders if Caleb can feel it when Molly strokes the soft fur of his cat and he gives Frumpkin an extra long tickle behind the ears. 

“Maybe”, Fjord says and his gaze drops down to Frumpkin, purring happily on Molly’s chest.

### V. 

“This is a terrible idea!”, Caleb says, his face beet red and slightly panicked. Molly pats his shoulder. 

“It’s really not. You know very well that you and Fjord are the best of us at talking to people. Just let Frumpkin stay outside with us and you can–“

“I can’t even dance!”, Caleb blurts out, his blue eyes widened. Molly stops in his tracks and looks at Caleb. 

“You can’t dance?”, he asks, just to make sure he heard correctly. 

“No! This is a terrible idea! Why don’t you do it?”

Molly snorts and gestures at himself. Apart from the fact that he’s a purple demon with horns, tattoos and tons of jewelry he has no intention of dancing with Fjord on a ball where noble people gossip, drink too much champagne and pretend to like each other. 

“It’s alright, I’ll teach you how to dance”, Molly offers and his heart skips a beat at the thought of dancing with Caleb. 

“Well, if you don’t mind, I could use a lesson to brush up my dancing skills”, Fjord says from the corner he sits in. Beau snorts loudly while she prepares a grappling hook and some knots for their mission tonight. 

“Then why don’t you two–“, Molly starts, smelling a fresh opportunity to finally push those two idiots over the edge, but Fjord is having none of it. Whether he sees through Molly’s plan and tries to prevent him from succeeding or just isn’t in the mood to be pushed around, Molly can’t tell. 

“Nope. I learn better when just, y’know, watchin’ people”, Fjord says. Molly snorts. 

“Kinky”, he says and Fjord presses two fingers to the root of his nose while Beau makes gagging noises. 

“Why am I in this room stacked with unresolved sexual tension”, she groans and bangs her head against the wall behind her. Caleb splutters while Fjord buries his face in his hands. 

“Shut up, unpleasant one. You’re not one to talk about unresolved sexual tension”, Molly shoots back. 

“Können wir bitte nicht mehr über irgendwelche sexuellen Spannungen reden”, Caleb murmurs. Molly wonders if he should start to learn Zemnian. Who knows what Caleb mutters under his breath while they’re all listening. He could say anything. 

“Just teach him to dance, obnoxious one”, Beau says while she wrestles with a thick rope. 

Molly focuses on Caleb again who looks so uncomfortable that Molly almost pities him. He takes Caleb’s hands and ignores the pleasant tingling this skin-to-skin contact ignites on his skin. 

“It’s fine if you just learn one or two classics”, Molly says and tries to make his voice soothing. He’s not sure he succeeds because Caleb’s face is still red and he keeps staring at their joined hands. Molly softly places one of Caleb’s hands on his hips. 

“I know you’re not a fan of physical contact”, Molly says quietly. And while he sometimes likes to make Caleb uncomfortable on purpose he’s not a complete asshole. Most of the time, that is. Caleb is a good guy and Molly will forever be thankful for that fateful night when The Mighty Nein learned everything there is to know about Mollymauk Tealeaf. When Caleb said ‘I’m satisfied, Mollymauk Tealeaf.’. 

“It is no trouble”, Caleb mutters while Molly raises their joined hands and gently pushes Caleb back one step. 

“Just follow my lead”, Molly says and winks. Caleb takes a few deep breaths as if this whole thing is a terrible ordeal he wants to get out of as fast as possible. Molly ignores the sad pang he feels on the inside and clears his throat. He can feel Fjord’s eyes on them and starts humming quietly, so Caleb has a beat he can follow. 

“I didn’t know you could sing”, Fjord says and the surprise in his tone makes Molly smile. 

“We sang a lot at the carnival. I sang to Toya when I put her to bed and, you know, my voice is nothing compared to hers, of course. But! She did say that she found it very soothing”, Molly says with a smile when he recalls the numerous times he tucked Toya into bed and sang her a few songs he picked up in the various cities they travelled through. 

Caleb’s expression softens while he looks down on their feet, probably to avoid trampling on Molly’s toes. Molly takes his hand off of Caleb’s shoulder, puts two fingers under his scratchy chin and lifts Caleb’s head so that he has to look up. 

“Don’t look down. Just follow my lead”, he says softly and holds Caleb’s gaze. Maybe his voice sounds a tiny bit hoarse. Maybe his feelings are getting a bit out of control. His heart has no sense of false modesty, it hammers in his chest as if there might be no tomorrow. They dance and Molly switches between humming and counting and telling Caleb which steps to take next. 

He completely forgets that Fjord and Beau are still in the room and when Fjord appears next to them it takes all of Molly’s self-restraint to not flinch in surprise. 

“I think I got the most of it. Mind if I try?”, Fjord says and Molly nods, then absentmindedly steps aside. He moves back to the corner Fjord sat in before, sinks down in the chair and watches Caleb and Fjord dance. Beau puts her grappling hook aside and glances at Molly, then rolls her eyes and gets up. 

“You guys are the worst. I’ll never hang out with you again”, she states, then stomps out of the room. 

“Mollymauk?”, Caleb says. “Can you… ah… help again?”

Molly blinks and lets his eyes drift over to Caleb and Fjord. Fjord seems to be stuck on the order of steps, so Molly gets up again and stands close to them. If he just stood on his tiptoes now he could kiss that embarrassed look from Fjord’s face. 

He adjusts Fjord’s hand on Caleb’s shoulder, pushes them closer together and then gets very close behind Caleb to mimic his stance. 

“Follow my lead”, he repeats quietly, right into Caleb’s ear and he can feel Caleb shudder against him, probably close to his breaking point from all the physical contact. Molly looks up at Fjord, Caleb standing between them with no way to go and he has a hard time to read the expression on Fjord’s carefully guarded face. 

Molly takes a deep breath in and starts humming again. Then he takes a step back and pulls Caleb with him. Fjord follows. 

Molly wants to hit himself for the wave of happiness that bubbles inside his chest. His heart feels as if it might swell and swell because those two idiots are the most terrible men Molly has ever met and he catches himself smiling uncontrollably. 

Ugh. 

This is the worst. He never wants to stop. 

After three more rounds he’s pretty sure that Fjord has the hang of it, but his green fingers brush against Molly’s while both of their hands cover Caleb’s and Caleb is nice and warm between them and looks somewhere over Fjord’s shoulder, probably because he still has trouble with holding eye contact. 

This feels so good and Molly wants, _longs_ for it to go on and on…

But this is not what he’s supposed to do. 

Molly is supposed to get over it and not ruin this group with any complications, while Caleb and Fjord dance through the night. And of course, get the job done while doing so. 

Molly lets go of Caleb and Fjord and steps back. 

“You’ll charm all the nobles in no time”, he says with a wide grin that comes easy to him, even if it is purely for show. “I’ll take my leave now, I have some business to take care of.”

He throws a glance back while closing the door and sees Caleb and Fjord still in their dancing position, staring after him and Molly feels weirdly empty again, a feeling he thought he left behind a long time ago.

### V + I

Molly knows that he fucked up. 

He doesn’t like to admit it, but damn it, he fucked up spectacularly. 

The plan was to give Caleb and Fjord a push to get them together so that Molly could forget all about his feelings for the two of them. Admittedly, the first part worked. It worked like a charm, Molly thinks, while his gaze sticks to the both of them, Caleb sitting between Fjord’s legs on the ground and reading a book while Fjord seems to be dozing. 

They look so sweet and content together that Molly wants to throw himself out a window. It’s as if his insides want to crawl out of skin because they cannot stand the longing that is all bottled up inside of him. 

This part of the plan hasn’t worked at all. 

When Fjord and Caleb kissed after the ball they went to, Molly was ecstatic for them – and for himself. Now he just wants to crawl back to the grave he dug himself out of two years ago, because damn, it sucks to miss people when they’re right in front of you. His feelings seem to have multiplied by two because Caleb and Fjord are an adorable couple and he just keeps looking at them all the time. 

He’s not jealous in the sense that he wants them to stop being like this. Molly is jealous in the sense that he desperately wants to be included. All these feelings are going to kill him, he decides, because it’s only been three weeks since the ball happened and Molly is already starting to go crazy. 

This was all a terrible idea. 

“Hey, Molly.” 

Yasha’s voice pulls him out of his miserable thoughts and he looks up. 

“Can I talk to you for a minute?”, she asks. Molly shrugs and gets up. Yasha walks in front of him, up the stairs and to the door that leads to Fjord’s and Molly’s room and as Yasha opens it, Molly stops dead in his tracks because Jester, Beau and Nott are all sitting on one of the beds, looking at them as they step into the room. 

“What the fuck?”, Molly says to Yasha while his best friend leans against one of the walls, closes the door behind them and crosses her arms in front of her chest. 

“Molly”, Jester says and her voice is so soft. He blinks at her. “Molly, you’re hurting.”

Molly furrows his brows and looks down at himself, confused as to why Jester might think that he’s hurt. They didn’t fight in over two weeks and his body is perfectly healthy. 

“She means your heart, dickwit”, Beau says, her body language perfectly mirroring Yasha’s. 

“What are you talking about?”, Molly asks and looks at all of them. What would Beau know about his heart? 

“You said that Caleb was afraid to ruin the group with his feelings but he wasn’t. You lied to me”, Nott accuses him. “You were talking about yourself!”

Molly turns to look at Yasha and she returns his gaze without any shame and shrugs her massive shoulders. 

“This is an intervention”, she explains. 

“Because you’re pining and it makes me sick”, Beau states bluntly. Molly flips her off. 

“I’m not– this is really unnecessary!” 

“But Molly, you look at them all the time”, Jester says and her voice sounds so sad that Molly immediately feels pulled towards her to soothe her before he can stop himself to think about the fact why Jester sounds this sad. It’s because she feels Molly is sad while looking at Fjord and Caleb. 

And damn it, he is. But he sure as hell will not discuss it with Beau or Nott or… with anyone, really. He made this mess himself and he’s going to live with it. 

“And they are looking at you too!”, Jester claims. Molly snorts. He highly doubts that Caleb or Fjord have the time or capacity to look at anyone besides each other right now. 

“I saw you three dancing, alright? It was disgusting because it was so _sweet_! I almost vomited all over you guys!”, Beau exclaims with a scandalized tone and Molly can’t help himself, he half snorts, half laughs and rubs his brow. 

He cannot believe that after all his scheming and matchmaking he’s being cornered by four of his family members about his fucking feelings. 

“As you can see there’s no need to be afraid”, Nott says and her voice sounds so much like a teacher speaking to a student that Molly has a hard time not snorting yet again. Jester gets up from the bed and comes over to hug Molly. Molly has no idea what to say. 

“ _When you break your leg or get stabbed again, I can heal you, ok? But I cannot heal this, I’m sorry! You have to heal that yourself!_ ”, she whispers in Infernal and Molly feels himself crumble a bit in her embrace, because Jester is just so sweet and she cares about him so much. He hugs her back carefully, not paying attention to the others while he thinks about his heart. 

If he could’ve just left it at the physical attraction he would be fine. 

But alas, Molly thinks bitterly, he’s just head over heels in love with two people he can’t have. It was one of the unspoken rules at the carnival. A casual fuck is fine, but don’t start serious business or it will damage the family in the long run. 

Jester lets Molly go and pushes him back to the remaining bed while Beau and Nott get up and walk over to the door. 

“It’ll be fine, Molly”, Yasha says with her gruff voice and opens the door. Molly has no idea what she’s talking about, until all the girls are outside and two people he definitely does not want to see right now come in. 

He stares up at Fjord and Caleb who look curious and a bit embarrassed and then the door slams shut behind them and Molly can hear Nott’s voice in his ear:

“Talk about your feelings! You can’t respond to this message!”

“Fuck you, Nott!”, Molly calls and he could swear that he can hear a slight cackling down the hall. 

“Well, this has been a misunderstanding, I believe”, Molly says with a smile and saunters over to the door, but he’s not able to open it. 

“What the–“

“Nott sent a message and said you wanted to talk to us?”, Fjord says and his smooth voice is surprisingly soft. Molly waves his hand. 

“No, I didn’t. I have nothing to say!”

He tries the doorknob again, but the door doesn’t give way. Molly has no idea how the girls managed to close the door from the outside, but he desperately wants to be elsewhere. He could still smash the door with his swords or climb out the window, but those drastic measures might alert Caleb and Fjord to the fact that something is wrong. 

Why the fuck would the girls do this? What is this going to accomplish? Nothing! Molly curses in Infernal under his breath and circles the room like a caged animal. 

“Mollymauk”, Caleb says quietly and takes a step forward. “Are you alright?”

Molly stops dead in his tracks and stares at Caleb. 

“Am I– no! I’m very much not alright! I got locked into a room with two lovebirds and want to be elsewhere!”

“Mollymauk, why are you so upset?”, Caleb wants to know. It pulls at something in Molly’s insides that Caleb keeps using his full name instead of calling him Molly and he throws himself on his own bed. 

“Who’s upset?”, he shoots back and grins widely. His heart feels as though it might jump up into his throat and right out of his mouth. Molly imagines it lying on the floor between them, all bloody and out in the open. 

Being in love is the worst. Molly wants to file a complaint with the Moonweaver. 

To his utter horror Fjord and Caleb decide that it would be a good idea to come over and sit down beside Molly on the bed. Molly swallows and tries not to look too closely at either of them. Caleb’s hair is surprisingly fluffy when he washes it, Molly notes. 

He wants to touch it. 

“Are you bothered? By Caleb and me?”, Fjord asks. His yellow eyes burn into Molly’s and Molly doesn’t like this turn of events at all. 

“Why would I be bothered by that?”, he answers flippantly. Molly decides to lie down and pretend to be all chill about this whole endeavor. He stretches his legs out and puts his hands under the back of his head, all while looking at Fjord and Caleb. Molly feels confident enough in his deception skills. But his heart is definitely still pounding in his chest. 

Fjord and Caleb exchange glances. 

“Maybe we can get Jester to cast Zone of Truth again”, Fjord muses. 

Molly feels the color drain from his face. 

“What the fuck do you want from me?”, he snarls. “I have nothing to say to you! Why don’t you two just fuck off or fuck each other, or whatever it is you’re up to these days.”

He sounds petty. Molly hears the way his words sound but he can’t stop. Jester was right, he is hurting. And while Molly is usually very polite to people who try to hurt him, that doesn’t go for his friends. His friends, his family, they won’t hurt him for lashing out, so Molly can lash out as much as he wants. 

“What, you want us to fuck right here?”, Fjord counters and Molly sees Caleb turn bright red. He splutters. Where is all your bravado, Mollymauk Tealeaf, he asks himself. He should make a comment about not having anything against voyeurism at all. Molly should just casually offer some help and then turn it into a joke. 

Instead he just looks at them, feeling defeated after all this emotional exhaustion he’s felt for weeks now. 

Mollymauk is so very tired. And he hates feeling cornered. 

“Do whatever you want”, he sighs in defeat and rolls over, showing Fjord and Caleb his backside. 

“Whatever we want?”, Fjord’s voice is soft again. 

“Yes, whatever”, he snarls. If Fjord actually plans to fuck Caleb right here, Molly might murder the two of them. Though then again, that would be admitting that it bothers him. Oh, he’s such a mess. A petty, lonely, love struck mess and he–

A hand touches his back and Molly almost jumps out of his skin at the contact. He stays very still and blinks rapidly, while fingers slowly draw small patterns on the skin below his neck. Molly feels a second set of fingers touch his peacock-tattoo and he wants to turn around to look at Caleb and Fjord to ask them what the fuck is going on. 

But he can’t move. 

If he moves the hands might stop. 

“Mollymauk”, Caleb says so quietly that Molly almost misses it. “What if we want you?”

Molly hears the words but his brain gets stuck on them and he turns around after all. Caleb’s face is the deepest shade of red Molly has seen on him yet and Fjord looks equally embarrassed but also determined. 

Caleb’s hand is still outstretched in Molly’s direction and Molly stares at it for a moment, before he sits up. He can feel his heartbeat in his throat. 

Mollymauk Tealeaf is rarely speechless and usually just takes what he wants. But this is something he didn’t see coming. 

“What do you want?”, Fjord asks. Molly almost laughs. Oh, he wants so many things. 

“I want–I wants this to work”, he repeats what he said all those months ago when he laid his past bare in front of these people. He meant what he said and it all worked out until now. Molly doesn’t want to be the one to break it. “I need this to work.”

What if it stops working because of him?

“Then we will make it work”, Caleb says and there is a small smile on his face that tears at Molly’s insides and clutches at his heart. 

Molly can feel Fjord’s hand tentatively touching his own and he looks down at their green and purple skin and then up at Caleb who watches Fjord’s and Molly’s fingers full of interest, still with the tiniest smile on his face. 

“I have the most colorful boyfriends”, Caleb murmurs and Molly’s heart leaps out of his chest and it might as well have flown out of the window because Molly feels so lightheaded as if he drank a lot of very fine booze. 

Molly wants to kiss Caleb. Molly wants to kiss Fjord. 

And he _can_. 

While he debates who should be kissed first, Nott’s voice speaks loudly into his ear. 

“Are you all still alive? You can respond to this message!”

“Yes! For fuck’s sake, yes! Don’t come up here!”, he calls exasperated and Caleb flinches and blinks, confused. 

“The girls are all horrible. You two are horrible! Everyone in this family is horrible!”, Molly exclaims, while Fjord laughs and Caleb slowly touches two fingers to the back of Molly’s unoccupied hand. Molly grabs it immediately and looks down at their entwined fingers. 

“This is the worst”, he says and looks at Caleb and Fjord accusingly. “How the fuck am I supposed to know which one of you to kiss first?”

Caleb shakes his head, as if Molly’s profanities are very endearing. Fjord snorts and climbs on the bed with Molly without letting go of his hand. 

“We’ll make it work.”

**Author's Note:**

> Zemnian phrases:
> 
> “Fass ihn nicht an.” - Don't touch him. 
> 
> “Scheiße, scheiße, scheiße. Komm schon…” - Shit, shit, shit. Come on...
> 
> “Können wir bitte nicht mehr über irgendwelche sexuellen Spannungen reden” - Can we please not talk about any sexual tensions anymore?


End file.
